I don't believe him...or his [b]LAWYERS[/b]!
WASHINGTON (AP) John Walker Lindh wants Americans to forgive him for joining the Taliban military, where he met other Westerners and is now telling federal agents what he knows, his lawyers say.
Lindh's knowledge of other fighters he met, possibly including detainees held in Cuba, would be of interest to the United States in addition to places he had been in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Before his military training in Afghanistan, he spent time in a pro-Taliban border region of Pakistan.
Lindh attorneys Tony West and George Harris, in interviews this week, would not describe the information their client is providing, and government officials refused to comment.
Lindh, 21, is undergoing debriefings with several government agencies as part of a plea agreement. He would receive a maximum 20-year prison term if officials are satisfied with his cooperation and the judge approves the deal at an Oct. 4 sentencing proceeding. Multiple agencies are attending the debriefings, West said.
Lindh ''was not unique in being a Westerner who converted to Islam and decided to fight against the Northern Alliance,'' the anti-Taliban militia that became a U.S. ally, West said. ''John ran into many Westerners who converted.''
The lawyers wouldn't say whether the Westerners included Americans. Authorities know of one other U.S. citizen who fought with the Taliban: Yaser Esam Hamdi, who was born in Louisiana and is being held by the military in Norfolk, Va. Lindh was in a Taliban unit consisting of non-Afghan fighters.
Lindh never contemplated that he would be fighting in a war that Americans would enter, the lawyers said. He now believes he made a terrible mistake by enlisting with Afghanistan's former harsh Islamic rulers and wants Americans to forgive him, West said.
Lindh understands Americans' extremely negative feelings toward him, West said. He wants his countrymen to know that he was not a terrorist and never joined Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network, even though he met bin Laden in a military training camp in Afghanistan.
''He understands Sept. 11 changed the way people view Islam and that he came into national consciousness at a time there was a great deal of justified national pain and anger,'' West said.
''He made a mistake. He admits he made a terrible mistake. No one wants to be judged by the worst mistake they made when they were 20 years old.''
Lindh is being held in the Alexandria, Va., Detention Center and the government's rules of confinement do not permit him to give interviews.
He is confined to his cell virtually the entire day except for the debriefings, family visits and meetings with his lawyers. He hopes to soon be allowed in an outdoor prisoner area.
Still a devout Muslim, Lindh reads the Quran and prays every day. He believes bin Laden and the Sept. 11 hijackers acted contrary to Islam's teachings by attacking innocent civilians and in the attackers' case committing suicide, the lawyers said.
He spends much of his day reading, picking books from a library cart sent to his cell. His choices have included biographies of Mohandas Gandhi and Nelson Mandela; works by Maya Angelou and James Joyce; and plays by William Shakespeare.
Lindh pleaded guilty July 15 to supplying services to the Taliban and carrying an explosive during the commission of a felony.
He went to school in Pakistan. While living in a region dominated by Taliban supporters before Sept. 11, he became convinced the Taliban sought to establish a pure Islamic nation and joined their army because he believed in what they were doing.
Total bs...he believes Islam does'nt teach suicide [b]BUT[/b] believes in joining their army and going to war??? BS>>>! What was he thinking? They were going to TEACH their way to winning the Jihad??? Bull.
[b][blue]NAKED[/blue][/b]

I have no fear of losing my life. If I have to save a koala or a crocodile or a kangaroo or a snake, mate, I will save it.---Steve Irwin

Telling what he knows is BS. I bet he don't know shit. Why did .gov make it sound like he was some sort of great big database of info?

Lindh attorneys Tony West and George Harris, in interviews this week, would not describe the information their client is providing, and government officials refused to comment.

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This says it all. And I bet it ain't no classified BS either cuz he don't know squat. Refused to comment means, "we didn't find out jack shit" cuz he don't know jack shit. And we always knew he didn't know squat but we had to make it look like we were giving him a deal.
And what would this loser know that any of the other captured losers don't know? Would they really trust a foreigner with secret invasion plans? Hells no.
It's still too bad some NA soldier didn't plug him up with 7.62.
[img]http://drudgereport.com/taliban.jpg[/img]
Wonder who he's gonna hang with in jail. Is he going to a fed penn or what?

If he's repentant, then I can forgive him. He didn't do any real harm anyway. He was young and dumb. Even if he's still a Muslim, I hope he got an eye-opener about the pathological elements of his faith.

Originally Posted By raven:
If he's repentant, then I can forgive him. He didn't do any real harm anyway. He was young and dumb. Even if he's still a Muslim, I hope he got an eye-opener about the pathological elements of his faith.

Sorry raven, but I can't forgive this asshole. I don't care how repentant he may be. Once you turn against your country, you can't go back and I think the USA would have been better off teaching this guy a lesson in treason on the spot with a bullet to the head.

I still this this whole issue is a waste of tax dollars. He should have been plugged with a 5.56 or if was captured, left to the same fate as the other Talibandages.
When America came a-knockin' he was there....on the other side.....fighting against US soldiers.
If Lindh was ignorant to Osama and his Frat Boys' agenda, that would have been an opportune time to .... uh... be enlightened.
Lindh = waste of time, let him rot. Or air drop him into Tora Bora with a canteen and a copy of The Boy Scout manual.

my 18 month year old daughter said to me as I cleaned the RECCE yesterday "da da ... bwack wifle?"

Yadda Yadda Yadda....had he not been picked up when he was...they could have easily persuaded him to come back to America and blow up anything and anyone they demanded...name an act he would'nt have been capable of...
He got caught ...He doesnt want to rot in jail..He speaks their language now he is an asset?
He is still a devout muslim...reads the Quran every day..and is no longer a follower of Bin Ladens version...
The Quran is like a bag of golf clubs...you can pretty much pick from several different versions...to make the shot you want
and convince the suckers you mean them no harm....(until you got them where you want them that is)

Originally Posted By 9divdoc:
had he not been picked up when he was...they could have easily persuaded him to come back to America and blow up anything and anyone they demanded...name an act he would'nt have been capable of...
He got caught ...He doesnt want to rot in jail..He speaks their language now he is an asset?

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Good point, I agree. If they had decided to put Johnny to better use than as a level 1 spear carrier, does anyone doubt that he wouldn't have gladly helped set off a dirty nuke in the US or commit some other atrocity?
Punk- I would assume he'll have to stay in solitary or end up dead. Oh well 20 years in solitary should be just about as much fun as a death sentence and plenty of people will still remember him when he gets out.

"Simply put, there is absolutely no legitimate purpose to possess any of these weapons, no legitimate purpose at all" Thomas J. Spota, Suffolk County District Attorney, pointing to an AR15.

he is a traitor to his country. they shouldnt even have allowed him to come back here and breathe the american air or set foot on the beautiful american soil. they should have sent him to a prison in mexico so he could rot in the desert he loves so much. If he can be forgiven for "not doing any real harm" then hell, why dont we forgive all of the towel toting low lives. they ALL didnt fly the plane into the building, they ALL didnt shed american blood on our home land. I`m sure you see where this is going... FRY THE TRAITOR!!!

From talking with someone who had to personally guard him in afghanistan, johnny walker is a nobody. he's just another joe who got captured, and the media happened to latch onto him. yes, this guy guarded other *american* talibaners.
by the way, he *has* been shot. he was shot in the leg, and they had to treat that while he was being detained.
and, apparently, there was none of this "please forgive me, i was wrong" attitude at the prison camp at the airport in kandahar. he apparently despised his guards and everyone around him, and generally stayed huddled up in a little corner trying to hide in a hole.
the description boiled down to "he's a pitiful, broken, misguided boy who jumped on the wrong bandwagon and now he's bitter he got caught." he was never sorry for what he did, and being a nobody, he has virtually no useful information to give. especially after the interrogation he received by our SpecOps soldiers.
besides, why does he even have a lawyer? he'd denounced his citizenship, and at best he's just another POW. at worst, he's an american traitor who joined an enemy army during a time of war, and fired shots against US soldier: a traitor, by definition guilty of treason.
(edited for format)